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FBI needs to beef-up high-tech cyber threat evaluations says DoJ Inspector General

The FBI needs to identify and categorize cyber threats more quickly than it currently does in an effort to stay out in front of current and emerging cyber threats.+More on Network World: FBI: The top 3 ways Congress could help fight tenacious cyber threats+That was the general observation of a report out this week from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General which found that while the FBI has an annual process, known as Threat Review andPrioritization (TRP), to identify the most severe and substantial threats and direct resources to them, the process employs subjective terminology that is open to interpretation, and as such does not prioritize cyber threats in an objective, data-driven, reproducible, and auditable manner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Motorola’s Moto Z smartphone redefines the meaning of mobility

Lately, reviewing Android phones has become difficult—difficult because the quality of the phones has become so consistently good. Android reached parity with iOS with the Kitkat release. Since then the component quality spiked upwards, delivering clear and colorful screens, smooth performance and long battery life at decreasing price points. It leaves the reviewer with little to nitpick over other than the cameras. And recently, the difference in camera quality in all but the economy-tier improved dramatically.The Moto Z Droid and the Moto Z Force change this with Moto Mods, an ingenious way to add hardware features. Management at One Infinite Loop must be wondering how Apple’s designers were caught asleep at the innovation switch.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CIOs question value of Microsoft’s LinkedIn buy

CIOs' views of Microsoft’s blockbuster bid to buy LinkedIn runs the gamut from dismay to cautious optimism. Some IT leaders fret that the $26.2 billion deal won't generate demonstrable value for customers while others are applauding what they see as a smart big data play. "My immediate response was, 'What the hell are they doing?,' says Brian Long, CIO of aerospace parts supplier Pattonair. Long, who views Microsoft's role in the enterprise as an enabler of Office productivity, is concerned that Microsoft suddenly wants a social network that drives sales and marketing endeavors. Long doesn’t think much of Microsoft trying to anticipate where it can tap in professionals' day-to-day life.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell patches critical flaws in SonicWALL Global Management System

Dell has patched several critical flaws in its central management system for SonicWALL enterprise security appliances, such as firewalls and VPN gateways.If left unfixed, the vulnerabilities allow remote, unauthenticated attackers to gain full control of SonicWALL Global Management System (GMS) deployments and the devices managed through those systems.The SonicWALL GMS virtual appliance software has six vulnerabilities, four of which are rated critical, according to researchers from security firm Digital Defense.First, unauthenticated attackers could inject arbitrary commands through the system's web interface that would be executed with root privileges. This is possible through two vulnerable methods: set_time_config and set_dns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chromebook shipments are exploding, but not replacing Windows PCs

Chromebook shipment growth will be in the double digits this year, but the devices are not being used as Windows PC replacements, which is what Google had hoped for.Chromebook shipments will jump by about 18 percent this year compared to 2015, according to Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner. It will be one of the few areas of growth in an otherwise slumping PC market.In 2015, Chromebook shipments totaled 6.5 million units, so shipments this year could be in the 7.5 million to 8 million range. About 1.65 million Chromebooks shipped in the first quarter of 2016; second quarter numbers weren't yet available.The devices, though, are still a small fragment of the overall PC market, in which unit shipments are expected to reach 290 million units this year. Outside of Chromebooks, the Windows-based 2-in-1 and gaming PC segments are also growing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to ensure your A.I. gets good nutrition

Like children, artificial intelligence needs proper parenting to achieve its full potential, and proper parenting starts with a healthy diet — of good data. Businesses increasingly acknowledge the potential of A.I. to accelerate decision making, but many have serious concerns about what is happening inside the black box. The quality of any A.I. can only be as good as the data it processes. Of course, “garbage in, garbage out” has long been an analytics refrain, but it’s even more important for A.I. Why? Consider the difference between the two. An analytics solution typically provides a graph prioritizing the results. Ask an analytics program why sales are down in the Northeast region, and you’ll essentially get a list of possible factors: supply chain hiccups, demographic changes, social media trends, etc. A human then has to evaluate the results to determine which factors to base the ultimate decision on. A cognitive A.I. approach is less transparent. Ask an A.I. why sales are down in the Northeast region and you get a single, definitive answer. That’s it. Done deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Still searching for a killer app in Windows 10 Anniversary Update

A couple of days ago, as I was finishing the InfoWorld review of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, a good friend (and astute editor) asked me a very simple question: Where is the killer app in Windows 10? After all, if folks are going to go through the pain and bother of upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Win10 -- and of climbing the learning curve once again -- there has to be a good reason for the effort, right?[ Your one-stop shop for Microsoft knowledge: Everything you need to know about Windows 10, in a handy PDF. Download it today! | Survive and thrive with the new OS: The ultimate Windows 10 survivor kit. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows newsletter. ] I racked my brain. It's a very pertinent question, especially now that the days of free upgrades are drawing to a close.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Moto Z: Is this the Droid you’ve been looking for?

The new Moto Z phones are pretty remarkable for some innovative things they can do -- and for something important they left out. Motorola is one of the oldest brands in electronics. The company invented car radios (hence "Motor-ola") and was the first company to build cell phone infrastructure and the phones themselves. In the early days, Motorola's phones were flat out the best you could get. Over the years, the company lost its way, with the exception of a few pretty good phones in the last couple of years. Now, after several ownership changes, Moto is part of Lenovo.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft lays out iOS porting plans with Islandwood

Eleven months ago, Microsoft introduced its Windows Bridge for iOS, otherwise known as Project Islandwood. It is an open source tool to port iOS apps to Windows freely available on GitHub. Since then, the project has experienced considerable downloads and Microsoft has made quite a bit of changes. All of this is documented in the Windows blog.According to the company, developers have been requesting complete API coverage of Microsoft's UIKit implementation. UIKit is a set of 30 modular interface components used in iOS's Cocoa Touch, among other platforms, and it's difficult to modify UIKit because that would mean modifying hundreds of classes. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Flaws in Oracle file processing SDKs affect major third-party products

Seventeen high-risk vulnerabilities out of the 276 flaws fixed by Oracle Tuesday affect products from third-party software vendors, including Microsoft.The vulnerabilities were found by researchers from Cisco's Talos team and are located in the Oracle Outside In Technology (OIT), a collection of software development kits (SDKs) that can be used to extract, normalize, scrub, convert and view some 600 unstructured file formats.These SDKs, which are part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware, are licensed to other software developers who then use them in their own products. Such products include Microsoft Exchange, Novell Groupwise, IBM WebSphere Portal, Google Search Appliance, Avira AntiVir for Exchange, Raytheon SureView, Guidance Encase and Veritas Enterprise Vault.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Exclusive: Oracle to reboot Java EE for the cloud

Oracle’s intentions for the future of Java EE have been cloudy, to say the least.Rumored to have put the project on the back burner, Oracle has weathered a storm of complaints over its stewardship of enterprise Java, with two separate organizations considering plans to move Java EE forward without Oracle. Rather than let Java EE wither, Oracle is instead looking to reboot the platform to better accommodate where enterprises are headed, particularly to the cloud, said a high-ranking Oracle official in response to recent criticism.[ The big 4 Java IDEs reviewed: See how Eclipse, NetBeans, JDeveloper, and IntelliJ IDEA stack up. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's Application Development newsletter. ] In an exclusive interview this week, Oracle’s Thomas Kurian, president of product development, emphasized ambitious intentions to modernize the server-side platform, for which Oracle is gathering feedback now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GE Power’s CDO is transforming his company and an industry

After a long career in enterprise software, Ganesh Bell became GE’s first chief digital officer in early 2014. Now, as CDO of GE Power, Bell is leading a transformation of this giant unit of the industrial powerhouse which, in turn, is driving change through the entire power-generation industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Microsoft reveals big plans for .Net Core

As part of a road map for its open source .Net Core runtime, Microsoft is planning more APIs, an upgrade to the F# language, and expanded processor and Linux support..Net Core, a multi-platform, modular subset of the .Net Framework programming model, was released as a 1.0 version late last month, along with ASP.Net Core 1.0 Web application framework.[ Free tools! Get the most out of Windows with 15 open source tools for system admins. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with InfoWorld's Windows newsletter. ] "This release will bring back many of the missing APIs in .Net Core, including networking, serialization, data, and more," said Microsoft's Scott Hunter, a member of the .Net engineering team. "These APIs will be part of .Net Standard 2.0, which will be released at the same time, resulting in APIs being consistent across .Net Framework, .Net Core, and Xamarin." The APIs will make it easier to write portable code that can run on major .Net platforms, targeting .Net 2.0 standard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon unveils ‘virtual network services’

Hard on the heels of a similar pitch from AT&T, Verizon this morning is taking the wraps off a lineup of Virtual Network Services (VNS) that it bills as a natural extension of data-center virtualization that promises enterprise WAN customers fast, flexible provisioning as well as cost savings. Industry analysts say such an expansion of existing software-defined networking will find an audience, but that not every customer will be ready for the deep end of the pool at the same time, a caveat Verizon readily acknowledges. The Verizon package – initially including security, WAN optimization and SD-WAN services -- offers customers multiple delivery and pricing models, as well as managed software from a roster of brand-name vendors such as Cisco and Juniper the company says will expand.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Like AT&T, Verizon is going virtual for enterprises

If you want to be able to turn network services on and off the same way you do virtual machines, some big carriers are starting to think like you.On Thursday, Verizon announced enterprise services defined and activated through software, a move intended to help both the carrier and its customers save money and respond more quickly to changing needs. It could mean firing up a new carrier Ethernet link to a branch office in minutes instead of months, for example.Verizon’s Virtual Network Services announcement comes just days after AT&T introduced its own set of software-defined services and then partnered with Orange to help move more service smarts from hardware into software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Ubuntu-powered BQ Aquaris M10 tablet: Almost amazing

Some reviews are easy to write. A new laptop gets released? Check out the specs, see how sturdy it is, test out the battery life—that sort of thing. Pretty simple, really. This is not that kind of review. What we’re looking at here is, on the face of it, simply a tablet. And I could do an in-depth review of the hardware itself, but that would tell you next to nothing about it. In front of me sits the BQ Aquaris M10: Ubuntu Edition, 10.1-in. screen, quad-core, 1.5GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 8MP camera. Pretty average specs. It feels like the cutting-edge Android-powered tablets—from about three years back. These can be picked up starting at around $250 USD.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Petition urges Apple not to release technology for jamming phone cameras

Over 11,000 people have signed a petition asking Apple not to deploy technology that would allow third parties like the police to use it to disable cameras on user phones under certain circumstances.Apple got a patent for this infrared technology in June and bagging a patent does not necessarily mean that the company is going to use the technology in its new devices.But there is considerable anxiety that the technology that appears designed to prevent people from recording copyrighted and prohibited material could also be used by the police to remotely disable cameras that could be recording misconduct by law enforcement."The release of this technology would have huge implications, including the censoring of political dissidents, activists, and citizens who are recording police brutality," according to the petition.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Southwest Airlines delays flights after computer issues

Southwest Airlines in Dallas, Texas, said Wednesday that performance issues with its technology systems had led to flight delays.The airline said it began experiencing intermittent performance issues in the afternoon with multiple technology systems as a result of an outage. “We are now managing flight delays across our system, with a temporary ground stop in place for those flights that have not left the gate,” it said in a statement.The airline’s website www.southwest.com also had a notice saying, "We're working hard to get you where you want to be......Thank you for your patience," suggesting that online reservations, check-ins and other customer services would not be immediately possible. Users were asked not to refresh their browsers as they would be automatically transferred to the site as soon as possible.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung files artificial muscle patent for use in flexible smartphones

Samsung has filed two U.S. patents for a smartphone that can bend using what it calls "artificial muscle," which when voltage is applied through an internal controller can hold virtually any shape. Originally noted by Korean IT News, the first patent (US20160195902) describes a flexible display panel; a flexible image processing board that controls the video signal to the panel; and "a support member provided between the display panel and the image processing board...and at least one artificial muscle connecting at least two plates and configured to be deformed to change a shape of the support member in accordance with a voltage applied thereto."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google’s DeepMind A.I. can slash data center power use 40%

Google tapped into the superior intelligence of its DeepMind neural network to find ways to vastly reduce the energy it uses in its data centers, which make up 40% of the worldwide Internet."This will also help other companies who run on Google's cloud to improve their own energy efficiency," Google said in a blog about the achievement. "While Google is only one of many data center operators in the world, many are not powered by renewable energy as we are."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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